Dining Bests Of 2025

Today’s entry is the continuation of a list started New Year's Eve of the dozen best dining experiences of the year just passed. I posted the first three of 2025, which revolve around Tom. 

The third favorite meal of the year occurred months later as I checked off an item on my bucket list. My sister and I shared a Hot Brown at the restaurant in The Brown Hotel in Louisville. We were waiting for the two other sisters to arrive and had a mid-afternoon snack in the buzzing room full of over-the-top hats. 

Usually things one hears so much about are almost always disappointing, because nothing can live up to expectations.But The Hot Brown exceeded expectations. It was first, huge, with thick crispy and smoky bacon glistening on top. The bread was covered with a delicious Mornay sauce, roasted turkey, and melted cheese. The bacon finished it, with more Mornay Sauce. It was so rich it's a good thing it was shareable. Eaten in its place of origin gave it even more meaning, making it the perfect start to our Derby weekend.  

Mother’s Day 2025 was different than any before. It was just ML and me. She and I have always had a special relationship to Mother’s Day, because I was in the hospital having given birth to her just the day before. That fact has always made Mother’s Day extra special for me, though she’s probably not as thrilled with that detail. 

This year we went to the buffet brunch at The Four Season’s. I have always loved nice hotel buffet brunches, but this one cured me. It was not because it wasn't great, which it was, and had to be with $150 price tag pp. But it was there that I realized I can’t and don’t want to eat enough to justify such a thing. 

If was different than any other buffet brunch except one I remember in the early days of The Ritz-Carlton. The portions were very small and beautifully crafted. And they were carving Porchetta at the carving station. I have a Porchetta obsession that is rarely satisfied, so it was nice to see a very good version of this Italian specialty. I was impressed. There were a lot of action stations designed for children who were actually children.

When Father’s Day came a few weeks later, ML and I contemplated how we would honor Tom on this first Father’s Day without the family patriarch. She had never been to Treme, where Tom began his life. I suggested we have mass where he was baptized and see the house where he grew up. Tom and I visited there a lot in the last few years when we were just riding around.

And then we would have lunch at one of the Grand Dames. I suggested my favorite since it was too soon to return to Tom’s favorite. We went to Galatoire’s and had a really memorable lunch, ending with the cup custard, something we wouldn’t normally eat but we shared in his honor that day. I had the Galatoire’s version of Crabmeat au Gratin for the first but not last time. And of course we had the Trout Amandine, one of the few fish dishes ML will eat. Perfection across the board.

The next month brought more great memories. We went to Coastal in Orange Beach over July 4th weekend. This is not a place to remember on its food, which is quite fine but nothing special. It’s the everything else here that is memorable. We sat at the very edge of the dining space before the sand begins. And the most memorable thing on the table was the pimento cheese dip, which was served with lots of grapes, an orchid garnish,, crackers galore, and two different jams, depending on which Coastal kitchen provided it. (There are two.)

Our trip to Tahoe and Napa the following month provides four entries on this list all by itself, so I'm going to count them all as one. Is that cheating? We flew into Reno to get to Tahoe. My millennial navigator is much more than that. She is constantly cruising the internet for the best of everything (according to those lists, of course.) But she is Tom Fitzmorris’s daughter, and reads the lists with discernment. She found two bakeries in Reno that were terrific, but one of them offered a few things I still think about. It’s called Perenn, and I had the most delicious potatoes in memory there. They were served with my All-American breakfast, but these potatoes stole all my attention. If the line hadn’t been so long I would have gotten more of these. They were unnaturally crispy on every edge, and were served with the most incredible creamy dill sauce with a hint of tarragon. Unforgettable.

The next few entries in this list belong to the second part of this trip. The first one was Mustard’s Grill. I remembered this place from my trip with Tom in 2004. Napa was buzzing about Mustard’s Grill, (still, even though it arrived in the 1980s.) We never made it there because we went to private affairs at the wineries. I had to go on this trip

Mustard’s Grill is such a happening place the energy is intoxicating there. The bar is hopping, (to put it mildly.) the place is a visual feast, and the food is great but not brilliant. On par with Houston’s.

We had a gigantic pile of crispy fried oyster rings and a burger, some ribs and a Caesar’s salad.

But the star of the Napa trip had to be Burger Pop-up from Thomas Keller. Located in the space formerly occupied by another Thomas Keller restaurant that was much-beloved by locals. The menu was simple: a burger, a fried chicken sandwich, some crinkle cut fries, and shakes.

This menu was executed flawlessly and the food was absolute perfection. We couldn’t do French Laundry, and we had a reservation at Addendum that we cancelled. Ad Hoc, the scene of legendary fried chicken, was closed while we were there. So the only way to experience the fried chicken was in the sandwich. 

The burger was Wagyu and the chicken sandwich was everything it was reputed to be. But it was the crispiness of the crinkle cut fries that struck me most. I asked about them and were told they were from Frites St., a frozen fries place whose founder we had on the show a while back. I hate to admit it but these frozen fries were killer. It was all next-level. ML declared it the best burger she had ever tasted. My fried chicken was on par with that.  Crispy outside, tender inside, juicy with the exact right spice level. The shake was a thick stand-up-straw thickness shake that was great but not so outstanding that I wondered about it long after as I did the rest of this meal. 

Napa was fantastic, with wonderful American food all over. But the last day of this trip was an even better experience that ML found on the internet. We went to a cheese tasting on The Point Reyes Penninsula. We were already going to the lighthouse after the Redwoods, but this little afternoon serendipity was thrilling. Tables of the cheese made by this family dairy farm, beginning with the famous Bleu, were beautifully arrayed on a table with nuts and jams and crackers and chocolates. Oh my!

Lovely ladies meandered around with hors d'oeuvres, while others manned the tables with sparkling cider and teas. It was delightful to sit on the top of that hill overlooking Tomales Bay on a gorgeous California afternoon.

I was barely back in town when one of the four traveling sisters called to ask if I wanted to meet her in Nashville. The four of us teamed up again for a Nashville adventure. I love Nashville and had been wanting to return there since my last visit ten years ago

The best food on this trip also makes this list. I know it seems ridiculous to have had great food on the music strip, but Morgan Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen is technically a half block off Broadway. I wouldn’t have believed it if someone had told me I would have two “best-ofs” in one meal. In this glamorous Nashville club I had the best restaurant version of mac’n’cheese and the best version of country biscuits. Yes, I know these are not gourmet items, but they were insanely delicious. The mac’n’cheese was the creamy kind, which is not my preferred style, but the medley of cheeses here and the consistency was just outstanding.This was topped with Nashville Hot Chicken. 

And it was actually dreamy. I never met a country biscuit with gravy I could stand, but this one was also fantastic. 

The place was serving wild caught catfish as well. Huh?

Tom always felt his hometown had the best food in the world. I believe that to be true. We are spoiled. But it was nice to be able to eat well when you’re away from home.